Pages

"Some birds aren't meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright"- Morgan Freeman, Shawshank Redemption. This blog is from one such bird who couldn't be caged by organizations who mandate scripted software testing. Pradeep Soundararajan welcomes you to this blog and wishes you a good time here and even otherwise.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Tester tested in interview(s) !

Hi Reader,"I appreciate you for the respect you show to other's time" was one of the compliments from an acquaintance I received and keeping this in mind I am sharing some of my interesting interview experiences as a tester !I was lucky to have attended 60+ interviews in this short span of 3 years in this industry... you would be amazed if I give you the list of companies that has interviewed me !Here are a few interesting experiences -Microsoft"Pradeep , How would you test a pencil" Mr Satyan from Microsoft asked me on a face to face session.."Could you give me a couple of minutes to think ?" my usual way to take time to answer any question ( tricky or simple )After 5 minutes or so I shooted out some interesting test cases... "Hmm ! all these are fine but could you tell me one case where only you could have thought but not other testers"Satyan ( an attempt to test the tester ) !That was tough but I told the most foolish answer yet it made huge sense in context of testing[marketing]."Sir , I would eat a few pencils" of course I did reply.Satyan " what ? and why ?"I cooked up "Sir, Pencils are targetted to children and they have the habit of chewing the back , by myself eating a few pencils would later ensure , it is not toxic and if it happens to have a good aroma and taste well then no wonder the pencil sales would increase as children would more often have it as a breakfast item or apetizer before their lunch session""Impressive" ( I expected it and with no hesitation , thankfully that was the reply)I have actually been reading and inculcating a lot of marketing and sales technique which helped me to give such an answer.While the interview was on a fire alarm started making sounds as if it was programmed to... and I watched above and nearby to see whether it was really a fire alarm " No , its false , dont worry" Satyan removed my anxiety to leave the place by telling so."Sir , looks like it hasnt been tested properly?" my brain send this information to my mouth and mouth responded to it."Pradeep, it can be a case where they are testing it" Satyan countered."Sir , Then we both are the giuena pigs :-D"...Satyan laughed for a few minutes before he gave his verdict "You are good at testing , I would like to have you in , it may take time , do you mind waiting""Please take your own time Sir" actually this is not what my brain told me but the bloody mouth is unwise sometimes.Hmmm ! am still waiting for the Redmond call , I hate taking up interviews and telephonic calls at odd times cos I am bored at it.

___ end of microsoft interview experience ___

The list of companies that have interviewed me are Cisco , McAfee , Aztec , Emuzed , SCT , Huawei , Celstream , Impulsesoft , Cisc , Sling media , nVidia , Qualcomm , Mindtree , WebtekLabs , Wipro , Infosys , efi , Socrates , L&T Infotech , Motorola , Zazu , Harita Infoserve , Mistral , Sasken ... ( wait i am searching my gmail for the companies that have interviewed me ) ... Tavant , Cassina ... hmm more ...more .... ( each company averaging 2-3 rounds )To be frank and surprize you ... in all the above and beyond companies .... i wasnt disqualified in tech interviews ..... that is something i hate about HR ...I would tell i learnt most of the theory of testing in the interviews and i would recommend young testers to attend interviews for the sake of improvement , it shows what are your voids and gives an opportunity to fill those voids.I have never hesitated to ask what are the answers for the ones which i did not know and also have made a good homework too...Edison says "A genius is a person who has done his/her homework well"... i hear this daily cos he talks to me ! ( just an illusion , could not be fasle too )Best Wishes Pradeep Soundararajanpradeep.srajan@gmail.comNote : If there happens to be a typo or spelling mistake you notice , ignore ...i too have seen it :-D

7 comments:

Pradeep, I admire your willingness to share knowledge and experince with others.Guess thats why this blog is successful. I too am a tester with more than 3 yrs of exp. guess all have something to learn from you. Attitude! :)

this is neeraj from delhi. i work as a technical writer. your blog is definitely a good read; absolutely no doubts about it. Combining knowledge with humor is the perfect recipe for achieving success and I believe that you are pretty aware of that.

I also remember being asked a similar kind of question. The interviewer took out the cap from his pen and asked me to give 5 ways in which I can use the pen cap. First, I was spell-bound. However, I also asked for some time to think like you did. Then I came up with more than 5 ways of using the cap.

Posts & Comments

Search this blog

Copyrights

Tester Tested! by Pradeep Soundararajan is licensed under Creative Commons. You must owe credits to Pradeep Soundararajan when you copy paste anything from here by mentioning the name and proper linking to the post. You are not allowed to edit any of the post without permission. For permissions, write to pradeep.srajan@gmail.com